Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Grant.
Ashley, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Starting my family earlier than most, statistically, I wasn’t going to graduate high school let alone achieve my dreams. I stopped attending JuCo to soon be a High School English teacher. That career choice never really fulfilled me, it was just easier in terms of when and what times I’d work once I secured a teaching position. So I decided to get licensed to style hair. I was already in love with it. I sacrificed a lot of time from my family. Worked FT 3rd shift and attended cosmetology school FT days.
It all started when I graduated hair school in 2008 and landed my first position as a stylist in a natural hair salon. I had never seen black women with beautiful natural hair down their backs until now. I was still putting relaxer (chemical straightening) in my hair and the owner of the salon asked me one day, “so are you going to keep coming to work with this relaxed hair?”
I answered I guess not huh?
Right then and there she pulled out the clippers and shaved my hair into this cute funky haircut. Colored it and everything. I fell in love with my hair for the first time. I’ll never forget the feeling. I’m glad I trusted her..her name is Hope.
I already had goals of owning a salon but I had more work to do and I knew I wanted it to be special. Fast forward a few trainings and classes, I set out a quest to go to LA like many others to make my hair dreams come true and take things to the next level. It wasn’t until I progressed in my career and gained inside knowledge of the hair industry that this dream came full circle that it had to be a Curly Hair Boutique.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not, still learning entrepreneurship. Put aside I was a young Mom with a family, being a hairstylist is all hustle. You have to have clients to operate.
You have to invest in yourself pay booth rent, commission, and when there are no clients there’s no pay and lots of sacrifices.
The corporate hourly salons didn’t have natural styling on the menu. So you then turn into independent contractors. I worked at home a lot at first but I was licensed and took care of my client’s needs.
I’m from the midwest, St.Louis, and the hair industry is a little different there.
When I moved to LA my goal was to work in corporate salons. I had always checked LA’s craiglist even from St.Louis looking for opps. I remember seeing Devachan Salon, home of Devacurl, was hiring and really wanted to work there. Within two months of moving here, I was hired. Moving to LA will humble you especially in the hair industry. You will think you have it all figured out but truly nothing goes as planned. You have to tough it out. There were sacrifices and tears shed before that opportunity. I felt like Will Smith’s character on Pursuit of Happiness when I got the job. It turned out to not be the experience I dreamt of, which was total devastation, but it shed plenty of light on my ideals of corporate natural hair salons.
Wash+Go Curly Hair Boutique – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Wash+Go is a boutique salon that styles embraces, and promotes curly and textured hair of all types. We’re the salon for the girls with who are done with chemical and/or long term straightening and letting their hair be free. Most known for having the best-valued expert Curly Cut in LA.
I’m most proud of the emotional connection we share with our clients and how we all bond over our textured hair. For many, embracing one’s natural texture is a process and hasn’t always been embraced no matter what type of curl it is. The stories we share are all connected.
What sets us apart from others is we aren’t pushing a particular product for our clients to use. We have our favs but focus more on loving and taking care of your individual curly head of hair. There’s no one size fits all for that. We understand the journey and want to join you. Great service included making it a comfortable and pleasant salon experience which is commonly forgotten in this industry.
Southbay doesn’t have many options at all for curly hair salons. Not everyone wants to drive North of the 10 freeway simply because they wear their naturally textured hair. Let alone pay hundreds of dollars as if having curly hair is a new trend. Affordability compared to private owned salons is important to us because we want the everyday curly girl. Anyone who wears their textured and curly should know there’s a place for them and you don’t have to have a be in a certain tax bracket to get an appointment. One day there will be one in each neighborhood. Easy to find and as abundant as corporate salons that don’t have curly hair on the menu.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Putting actual check marks in the boxes of my plan up to when I opened those doors. Looking back on this journey and seeing the sacrifice wasnt in vain.
Pricing:
- Wash+Go Set $55 Come as you are and let us enhance your curls with definition.
- Wash+Go Blowout $55 Switching up your look and blowing the texture out safely so your curls bounce back. o
- Wash+Go Curly Cut $150 Best Valued Curly Cut in LA.
Contact Info:
- Address: 609 N Pacific Coast Hwy
Ste.114 - Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @washgo.us
- Facebook: Wash+Go
- Twitter: Www.washgo.us
- Yelp: Wash+Go
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